Meet Mel

Our whole brand is about empowering women. It’s so motivating for me, when people say ‘Oh, I’ve done this and I never thought I could.’ You really feel like you’re making a difference to people.

It all started with a Facebook post. When Mel Bound commented on a page for mums that she was feeling frustrated about her lack of physical activity and sluggish energy levels after having children, she found that she’d touched a nerve. “All I could hear was this ‘ping-ping-ping-ping’ of women replying,” she recalls. “And they were all saying ‘I feel exactly the same’.”

Inspired, Mel told the group that she was planning a run in a local park and that anyone who wanted to join her was welcome. She was not prepared for the response she eventually got; as she waited by the park to see if anyone would take her up on her offer of a running buddy, “all of these women started streaming down the street.” A total of 75 women joined her on that first run—and the This Mum Runs movement was born.

After eighteen months, Mel’s running community had grown to 8,500 runners in the Bristol and Bath area, with over 40 mums to date being trained and employed as running coaches. This Mum Runs now offers running meet-ups as well as courses and an online store. With a successful crowdfunding campaign behind her, Mel plans to expand the community across the UK—and in time, even further afield. “It’s life-changing for people,” she says. “We want to harness what we’ve got and spread the TMR love around the world.”